Spring CSRF Protection Guide: Examples and How to Enable

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) is a prevalent and dangerous attack vector that exploits trusted user sessions to execute unauthorized actions on websites or SaaS applications, often with catastrophic consequences. Despite its ease of execution, effective mitigation strategies exist, such as using HTTPS, verifying request origins, and employing the Synchronizer Token Pattern (STP) for session validation. The Spring Framework, particularly its Spring Security module, offers built-in protection against CSRF by default, which can be easily leveraged by developers to secure their applications without extensive configuration. Key to preventing CSRF attacks is ensuring these security measures are not disabled, thus maintaining robust protection against potential exploits that could compromise user and administrative accounts. The insights and methods outlined in this discussion are informed by Alexander Fridman's extensive experience in software development and security best practices.